FTA: "President Barack Obama said last month the U.S. should eliminate tax subsidies for fossil-fuel production worth $4 billion a year so it can boost spending on renewable energy and cars that run on alternative fuels, such as electricity."

Or just get rid of all these subsidies altogether. Why make electricity artificially cheap? This encourages increased usage by those who would normally have a second look at their electric usage to lower their bill. End all subsidies on energy production and let the market set the price. Energy companies will always invest a portion of their profits into new technology, some of which will be making energy production cleaner.

"The new clean air standards" will only artificially raise the cost of electricity for most Americans. All the extra costs (smog taxes) incurred running older plants will be passed onto you and me. The cost of prematurely replacing these old "dirty" coal plants with newer cleaner plants will also be passed on to you and me. The only party benefiting in this is our government, the politicians who line their pockets on all the transfers of money, and those who receive our money as part of entitlement and redistribution programs. I don't benefit more from more expensive electric costs and neither does the electric company.

The real shame is our economy is in the crapper. Making necessities cost more (which is all every "clean air standard" does) will only reduce people's discretionary spending, that is to say the money they spend at businesses buying things they want, things that stimulate the economy. The only economic stimulus that actually stimulates the economy is taxing less. This new clean air act and regulation of coal power plants is just another tax.